Croatia at the helm

Croatia is enjoying its 15 minutes of fame as it presides this month over the UN Security Council. The honour of leading the most powerful (officially) and most divided (obviously) council in the world has sparked a lively debate here about the topics that Croatia should put on the Council's agenda. I suspect the same debate kept Costa Rica busy when it took the presidency last November.
Croatia's president Stipe Mesić addressed the Council today. He said that the world in the 1990s had failed to understand how dangerous Milošević's politics were and warned the world now ignores the danger that comes from Milorad Dodik. Dodik is Prime Minister of the Republika Sprska, one of the two entities that make up Bosnia. Mesić accused Dodik, not for the first time, of destroying Bosnia.
It must be said that Mesić has always defended the unity of Bosnia, not only against Dodik but also against former Croatian president Tuđman, who would have been most happy to cut out a part of Bosnia and add it to Croatia. I don't know, on the other hand, whether keeping people in one state against their will is a smart strategy for the long term.
Even if Bosnia will get back on the UN Security Council's agenda, I doubt that will do much to easy tensions. After all, Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence left the Council as devided as Bosnia is already.